


These Hands Were Made To Hurt

by rabbit_in_a_lizard_mask



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Parent Sam | Awesamdude, Sam | Awesamdude-Centric, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), and his unconventional parenting, awesamdad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29254782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabbit_in_a_lizard_mask/pseuds/rabbit_in_a_lizard_mask
Summary: “I'm really not happy with the progress of the hotel, Sam. You've kinda done fuckall over the past week, I'm a bit pissed at you."Sam turns the Sam Nook voice off with aclickand turns to face Tommy."Would you feel better if you hit me?"Sam spreads his arms again, but this time Tommy understands. He'sdaringhim. He thinks Tommy's gonna pussy out of it again. Nice try, Awesamdude, but TommyInnit ain’t falling for itthistime.
Relationships: Sam | Awesamdude & TommyInnit
Comments: 32
Kudos: 731
Collections: Cheshire's MCYT recs!, Completed stories I've read





	These Hands Were Made To Hurt

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Make History (I Repeat It)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29104629) by [Badnews](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badnews/pseuds/Badnews). 



> alternative title: Sam Nook's Parenting Handbook

“I'm really not happy with the progress of the hotel, Sam. You've kinda done fuckall over the past week, I'm a bit pissed at you."

Sam turns the Sam Nook voice off with a  _ click _ and turns to face Tommy.

"Would you feel better if you hit me?"

Sam spreads his arms again, but this time Tommy understands. He's  _ daring  _ him. He thinks Tommy's gonna pussy out of it again. Nice try, Awesamdude, but TommyInnit ain’t falling for it  _ this  _ time.

Tommy punches Sam in the stomach.

Sam doesn't double over wheezing, sputtering with shock, and come up swinging. He's knocked half a step back, but he'd tensed for it- he  _ had  _ expected it, and the knowledge settles heavily in Tommy's stomach.

_ \- Tommy tenses in anticipation of Dream's blow, but it still leaves him wheezing -  _

"Feel better?" Sam asks, and Tommy actually  _ does _ . He should've done this  _ ages  _ ago. 

Watching Sam warily, he raises his fist again, and when Sam doesn't move he hits. Right below the ribs, where he  _ knows  _ it hurts.  _ That _ has to get a reaction out of him, right?

Sam grunts, and Tommy skitters away when his jaw clenches, but…

"You can use the Axe of Peace," Sam says, and he still doesn't move to fight back.

"Wh- no! I'm not going to use the Axe of Peace on you!"

Sam tilts his head to one side, looking at Tommy from behind the (green, green,  _ green) _ creeper mask. "Why not?"

_ Why not-? _

"Um- Sam- because that would be terrible?? It might actually kill you??"

"So could your fists," Sam points out. "Hits to the stomach can leave internal bleeding, and hits to the head or neck can be immediately fatal. Does it really matter? I'll respawn. Even if it's a canon death, I've got all three. What's stopping you?"

"You're asking me why I'm not killing you, Sam- just to be sure we're on the same page, friends don't usually kill each other? That is, in fact, extremely fucked up?"

Sam stands still, head still tilted to the side, as if he's trying to figure Tommy out. Hah, nice try,  _ Tommy _ has no idea what he’s doing most of the time and he’s  _ Tommy. _

"... Friends don't usually hit each other, either," he eventually offers, and the bitter taste in the back of his throat and churning in his stomach that Tommy lives with (that he's had since he snapped and decided to hit Sam, to call his bluff on not hurting him only to discover it just  _ keeps escalating _ and he doesn't know how to  _ stop  _ it why isn't Sam  _ fighting back,)  _ intensifies. 

Tommy raises his fists again. "I'm  _ not  _ gonna use the Axe of Peace on you!"

_ \- "I will never raise a hand against you," says Sam, and Tommy wants, so desperately, to believe him -  
_

One side of Sam's mouth tugs into a smile, but without seeing his eyes Tommy doesn't know if he's happy or sad or angry and biting his tongue, doesn't know how far away he is from  _ hurting  _ him, and Tommy is fucking tired of it. He's tired of green bitches in masks that never let him know what they're really thinking.

"Actually, you know what, take your fucking mask off. Take it off, I hate never knowing what your eyes look like, are you being all shifty? You being a Shifty Bitch, Sam Nook?"

Sam doesn't stop smiling. Then he moves for the first time since Tommy hit him and  _ oh no he's crossed a line the mask is important isn't it Sam's run out of patience and now Tommy's going to be punished- _

“Do you want to take it off me?”

He's just folded his arms behind his back. Still standing there, still smiling lopsidedly under the mask despite the absolute neutrality of his voice, and Tommy doesn't know if it's a trap or not.

"... You take it off," Tommy insists more quietly.

"Do you want to take it off me?" Sam repeats, in the exact same tone.

_ Poke. _

Tommy's never been tested so hard as Sam is testing him. Is it a threat? Is it a plea? Is Sam _daring_ him to take it, to see if he'll follow through or if he'll chicken out the way he did the first time Sam asked dared asked if Tommy wanted to hit him? ~~_It would be hard to fight back with his arms behind his back,_ murmurs a voice in the back of his head, and Tommy stomps it down viciously. Sam's a powerhouse and he _needs_ to remember that, no matter how many hours the man spends working on the hotel with him or how he talks in Animal Crossing sounds to cheer Tommy up or how some days seeing Sam Nook is the only thing keeping him from breaking.~~

Tommy takes a step back. "I want you to take it off!"

Sam dips his head in a nod. "Okay. If that's what you want me to do."

Tommy takes another step back as Sam moves out of parade rest, but he just reaches up to undo his mask.  _ Gods, _ Tommy is going to  _ burst  _ with the weight of the churning snakes in his stomach, they're going to slither their way up his throat and out his mouth and gnaw through his gut and he'll just be left a bleeding husk on the ground,  _ why is Sam letting him do this? _

He's never,  _ ever, _ seen Sam without his mask. He's never met anyone else who has, either. If there's a story behind it, Tommy doesn't know it, but it's obvious that Sam just doesn't like showing his face.

… This shouldn't be something Tommy is doing.

Sam finally undoes the last latch keeping his mask on, and it comes away in his hands.

This  _ shouldn't  _ be something Tommy is doing. It shouldn't have gone this far. He should never have brought up the stupid mask.

"Is this what you wanted, Tommy?" Sam asks, still absolutely neutral, still smiling, but- he's  _ crying. _ How the  _ fuck  _ did he keep that out of his voice?

"Yes," says Tommy. _ No. _

Fuck, how many people have seen Sam's face?

"How many people have seen your fucking face, Sam, I wanna know how exclusive this experience is," Tommy demands, and Sam tilts his head again and looks up. Thinking. Then he looks directly at Tommy, and  _ fuck, _ has he been doing that the  _ whole time? _

Has Tommy actually been the centre of someone's attention for once?

"My family, Bad and Ant once when a redstone accident sent dust everywhere and it wasn't safe with it on. Dream snuck in a clause about seeing my face at least once into the prison contract. Apart from that, no one off the top of my head," Sam lists, as if he hasn't just told Tommy he only ever willingly takes his mask off around family and when he  _ has  _ to. And, apparently, when TommyInnit asks.

Sam's a  _ pushover. _

The power is intoxicating. 

"So you're a pussy."

Sam blinks, cheeks wet with tears. "Why?"

"'s obvious! You're a pussy. All I had to do was ask and you take it off?"

Sam smiles again, and Tommy can't identify the emotion in his eyes. "Well, yeah. I had to." 

"You act all strong, 'oh look at me I'm the Warden,' but really- what?"

"I had to," Sam repeats. "I'm under contract to do what you say, remember?"

Tommy would've coped better with a punch.

Sam was  _ under contract. _

… Which was why  _ Dream  _ knew what he looked like, and now it's why  _ Tommy  _ knows what he looks like, and  _ oh god who has Tommy become-? _

_ \- "I'm worse than everyone I didn't want to be!" he shouts at Technoblade, and wishes with all his heart that it wasn't true -  _

"... Put it back on-n. If you-ou want to," Tommy stammers, backing up further. He forced Sam into taking his mask off. He  _ hit  _ him. Why the fuck is Sam still here? There’s nothing in the contract about  _ standing still while Tommy uses him as a goddamn punching bag! _

Sam just nods, putting his mask back on, and a tension in his shoulders Tommy didn't even notice was  _ there  _ eases as he fastens it. What kind of fucking person  _ is  _ Tommy?

“Thank you," Sam says, and he still doesn't have  _ any  _ emotion in his voice even as Tommy can  _ see  _ tears dripping off his chin.

It's the straw that breaks the camel's back. Tommy bolts, gasping for air through the iron band around his chest, running and running and running and  _ running _ until he skids to a halt on the soft ground where he spent an hour pulling up weeds that morning, and throws up.

Then, for good measure, throws up again.

He doesn’t know how long he kneels there in the dirt where he pulled up the weeds by the roots, choking on air and trying  _ desperately _ to breathe through the band around his chest why is it so  _ tight _ why can’t he  _ breathe? Help! _

“-hh, shh, come on. In for four, hold for six, out for eight. That’s it. In for four, hold for six, out for eight. In for four…” the voice keeps talking, providing a solid wash of noise for Tommy to focus on as he struggles to breathe. The voice is nice, and kind, and -  _ he should do what it says so it  _ **_stays_ ** _ nice and kind -  _ Tommy fumbles through following the instructions. It… helps. After awhile the bands loosen, and he realises he’s sobbing, and that Sam is kneeling next to him in the dirt where he spent an hour pulling up weeds.

“Tommy,” Sam says. “Tommy, are you alright?”

Tommy flinches away, spitting out blood from where he bit through his lip, and lands on his butt, a shout tearing its way from his throat.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU HIT  _ BACK?" _

"I said I wasn't going to raise a hand against you, and I  _ meant _ it," Sam says, and Tommy has never been gladder to see a creeper (see a  _ mask)  _ staring down at him.

“But- but I was hitting you and shit!”

“Mhm. I'm a big boy, I can take it. Besides, you feel like shit now, right?”

Tommy vomits again.

“Oh, Tommy. Shh, shh, it's okay. As soon as I pointed out that you could escalate, you backed off. As  _ soon  _ as you fully realised what you were doing, you started panicking. It happened, and it’s not okay that you did it, but I forgive you. Okay?”

_ No, it’s not okay, how can Sam stand to look at him, how can Sam come over here and  _ **_comfort_ ** _ him after  _ **_he’s_ ** _ the one who hurt  _ **_Sam?_ **

“You didn’t hit  _ that _ hard, Tommy.”

“... you heard that?"

“Mhm."  


Sam's voice is just as casual as when Tommy was shouting at him, as when Tommy was _hurting_ him, and that... how does he _do_ that?

Tommy swallows his pride, shoving it deep down into his gut to wrestle with the guilt and rage and  _ pain. _ “What do I have to do to make it up to you?”

Sam tilts his head, and now Tommy can see the way he turns his face slightly into the distance to think. “I have a question. You don’t have to answer it, especially not right away, but please  _ think  _ about it.”

Oh, that doesn’t bode well.

“How much of that was because you were angry at  _ me, _ and how much was because I wear a mask-” oh no “-and like green-”  _ oh no  _ “-and have been telling you what to do?”

_ Oh no no no no no. _

Sam gazes at him silently for a moment. “Think it over.”

He must see what he wants to see in Tommy’s tearstained face, because he smiles again. Unlike Dream, it doesn’t look cruel, and it’s a bitter joke that Tommy’s better at reading people when they’re wearing masks and punches have been thrown.

“Today’s been  _ eventful, _ huh? 

Tommy manages a curt nod, not trusting himself to speak.

“… Do you want a hug?” Sam asks, and Tommy freezes for a second before his body takes over and throws him into Sam’s open arms.

“Feel better?” Sam murmurs, and Tommy chokes on a laugh.

Despite everything, he actually  _ does. _


End file.
